Legal Research

The Debate, Again, On Teaching Lawyering Skills In Law School

Posted on August 31, 2010
The National Law Journal site published an article yesterday on one of my favorite topics: practical legal education. The article focuses on the article Preaching What They Don't Practice: Why Law Faculties' Preoccupation with Impractical Scholarship and Devaluation of Practical...

A TR Legal Print Format Switcheroo: More to Come?

Posted on August 30, 2010
From last Friday's mail: Dear Valued Subscriber As a current subscriber you will notice a change in format with the update of this product. This shipment contains a brand new pamphlet that replaces your current looseleaf binder and contents. [Yada...

There is Still Time to Propose an AALL Program

Posted on August 30, 2010
I have bemoaned the lack of suitable AALL programming for private law librarians. So this year instead of just submitting my one program and leaving it at that, I have become a member of both the PLL Program Committee and...

OED May Be Going All Digital

Posted on August 30, 2010
Reports are that the next editions of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary will skip the print stage and go directly to subscription based online access only. As this article in PC World notes, the second edition weighs in at 137.72...

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U.S. News & World Report's measures compared

Posted on August 30, 2010
The Chronicle of Higher Education kicked off a series that will explore quality in higher education over the next few months. One of the accompanying pieces includes a fascinating interactive map demonstrating that each ranking entity has its own emphases...

Round-Up of Practitoner Blogs

Posted on August 29, 2010
Tax Controversy Lawyer Blog http://www.taxcontroversylawyerblog.com http://www.taxcontroversylawyerblog.com/index.xml Examines tax law cases, news and opinions in South Carolina. Published by the Turner-Vaught Law Firm, LLC. Jacksonville Immigration Attorney Blog http://www...

"Good Earner" Joins the TR Legal "Family:" Launch of Findlaw UK

Posted on August 28, 2010
Findlaw UK was launched earlier this month. On Binary Law, Nick Holmes writes: [I]t?s uninspiring and unoriginal and will add little to human web-happiness. Let?s be honest this site exists to churn out ?good? content which will be well regarded...

Northwestern Law's Dean Van Zandt Appointed President of The New School

Posted on August 27, 2010
Yesterday, The New School announced that David Van Zandt, dean at Northwestern's School of Law since 1995, has been appointed its eighth president, effective Jan. 1, 2011. Hat tip to Chicago Law's Brian Leiter who writes Van Zandt was going...

Firday Fun: "Just Don't Ever Make a Mistake:" Control-Self-Delete

Posted on August 27, 2010
Advice from Stephen Colbert ... get rid of your friends, family, and everything you have ever searched on the Internet using Google after you have surgically disfigured your appearance. Sound like good and pretty comprehensive advice circa August 24, 2010...

Friday Fun Part 2: Welcome the New 1Ls and First Year Associates with This "I Can Read You Mind" Test

Posted on August 27, 2010
And an explanation of how the test works here. [JH]

Beyond the Walled Garden of Very Expensive Online Legal Research: Glassmeyer's Law Student Guide to Free Legal Research on the Internet with a no opt-out required offer to TRI's Tom Glocer

Posted on August 27, 2010
If you missed Sarah Glassmeyer's recent law-lib post, do check out her Law Student Guide to Free Legal Research on the Internet. It is sponsored by Cornell's Legal Information Institute and Justia and is hosted by CALI. It is meant...

Top 10 Law Faculty Based on American Academy of Arts & Sciences Membership

Posted on August 27, 2010
Chicago Law School's Brian Leiter reports on the ten law schools with the highest percentage of faculty elected to one of the scholarly sections of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences here. The list ranges from #1 Yale with...

Time for Librarians to Make Noise: Public Library System Closures Due to Budget Cuts

Posted on August 26, 2010
Seattle PI is reporting that the Seattle Public Library System will be shutdown Monday, Aug. 30 through Sunday, Sept. 5 due to citywide budget cuts in the city's effort to deal with a $67-million budget shortfall. The library system will...

Why Can't Johnny Research Practice Law? Is Johnny thinking like "Chad," the LRW instructor, instead of thinking like a law librarian?

Posted on August 26, 2010
Michael Murray is the co-author of the legal research textbook I refuse to identify since he once said that librarians shouldn't teach legal research because librarians research differently than lawyers according to David Walker's recent LLB post. "This book obviously...

New Google Phone Call Service Works Well

Posted on August 26, 2010
Google yesterday added the ability to make free or low cost phone calls to Gmail. Calls to the United States and Canada landline or mobile phones are free, while international calls are very low cost. Some international calls to landlines...

Fasting for Accurate Employment and Salary Data: Open Letter to Law School Deans and Directors on 20th Day of Hunger Strike

Posted on August 25, 2010
Source Dear Law School Deans and Directors: My name is Ethan Haines. On August 5, I began a hunger strike in support of law school transparency and career counseling (career planning and training) reform. Ten of the nation?s top law...

Why Can't Johnny Research Practice Law? Academic law libraries are not wasting a perfectly good recession to develop collections that look more "real world."

Posted on August 25, 2010
Ah, no this isn't a reference to "Johnny Westlaw" though I would like to see him perform legal research in the real world and write a check for his credit card charges for the online search costs to do so...

Are e-Books Cost Effective and Where to Find Them for Free

Posted on August 25, 2010
The Wall Street Journal today features a column by Brett Arends analyzing the cost of e-books over their print counterparts. He points out that the market share of e-books is growing, from 3% to 8% of consumer books, and describes...

This book isn't for you: Teacher's Manual to Legal Research Methods

Posted on August 25, 2010
I received an email from Foundation Press today informing me that the teacher's manual for Murray and DeSanctis's book Legal Research Methods is now available. However, this book was never intended for me as I am a librarian. Michael D....

For Westlaw and Lexis, an AOL Moment: Fastcase's Ed Walters on LAW.GOV

Posted on August 24, 2010
In response to LLB's open invitation to legal vendors to answer the question, "What does LAW.GOV mean to you?" Fastcase's CEO, Ed Walters, has answered the call with the following perspective. As with all vendors that do so, this guest...

Transforming the GPO to Meet the Market Needs of a Digital World

Posted on August 24, 2010
The GPO's CIO Mike Wash was recently featured as "Federal Player of the Week" in the Washington Post. Bringing the Government Printing Office into the digital world observes that it took a "little convincing" to persuade Wash to leave a...

Opening: Reference/Student Services Librarian, North Carolina Central Univ. School of Law

Posted on August 24, 2010
Responsibilities. The Reference/Student Services Librarian is responsible for identifying the research needs of law student body and planning services to meet those needs. This includes: Coordination of the development and maintenance of a series of research guides and bibliographies; Participation...

Why Can't Johnny Research Practice Law? Or, would you hire a law prof to represent you?

Posted on August 23, 2010
"[This article] surveys the history and present practice of bibliographic instruction and offers recommendations for its improvement. [The author] asserts that most first-year legal research courses are of limited success not so much due to misconceived methodologies or inadequate instruction,...

What Do Law Profs Do All Day?

Posted on August 23, 2010
Well, it's not just sitting in their offices complaining all day to whomever will listen, meaning other faculty members or research assistants as the Hitler videos suggest at What Do You Mean I Have to Teach on Fridays!, Reaction to...

Short Takes On The News

Posted on August 23, 2010
- If someone lives in Philadelphia and blogs, and collects even a tiny amount of income from that activity, then that person could expect a tax bill from the city for $300. It represents the cost of a business privilege...

Crowd-Sourcing New SEs is a Good Thing: WestlawNext Advanced Search Glitch Reportedly Fixed Now

Posted on August 23, 2010
As of 2 PM Eastern today, the WLN search glitch Lee Ryan, Senior Reference Librarian, University of San Francisco School of Law, reported on law-lib on August 18th and published on LLB the following day, has been fixed according to...

Strange but True: Police Escort College English Prof from Starbucks for Incorrectly Placing an Order

Posted on August 22, 2010
Lynne Rosenthal, a college English professor, has had several confrontations with Starbucks baristas over the proper way to place an order. Yes, there is a right way -- "Venti, please, no whip" -- and a wrong way -- "Just a...

Culture Clash: No Flip-flops, Slasher-Movie Character T-shirts or Pajamas Allowed While Court is in Session

Posted on August 21, 2010
USA Today reports that an increasing numbers of courts are adopting dress codes at Judges crack down on inappropriate clothes in court. The articles provides several interesting illustrations of bad fashion statements for court appearances. From the story: Gayle V...

RIP WWW: If apps are on the rise, is the Web on the decline?

Posted on August 20, 2010
That's the topic Wired features in the cover story of the September 2010 issue. In The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet, Who?s to Blame: Us, Chris Anderson writes that "as much as we love the open, unfettered Web,...

Friday Fun: Open-Sourcing the Constitution

Posted on August 20, 2010
We talk a lot about open-sourcing the law of the land on LLB but not quite in the way Jon Steward and John Hodgman did as a solution to our so-called "constitutional crisis." Hat tip to Constitutional Law Prof Blog....

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